Forget Dropbox: Apple iCloud Is Most-Used Cloud In U.S.

Cloud services are hot news, and among the names that come to mind are Dropbox and Box and so on—especially since Dropbox has just bought brand new cloudy mail service Mailbox. But new data from Strategy Analytics may surprise you: The company with the most cloud service customers in the U.S. isn't one of these, nor is it Amazon...it's Apple. iCloud, it seems, is more than just a fluffy iOS app.

Strategy Analytics' question to some 2,300 Americans was quite straightforward: "Have you ever used any of the following online digital locker services which enabled you to store music, video (including TV shows and movies) or games online ("in the cloud") and stream them to an Internet-connected device?" 27% of people surveyed identified Apple's iCloud as a system they've used, 17% used Dropbox, 15% Amazon's Cloud Drive, and 3% Samsung's Music Hub.

Music was the most stored content, and of course iTunes has a commanding lead in the digital music space. But the results throw a spotlight on the current vogue to stream music to consumers—a game that Apple, Samsung, and many other players are trying to get into and lead. It's also long been rumored that Apple is going to use its iTunes system to develop a new TV device that may involve cloud storage.